When Will The “Mumble Rap” Era End?

Can We Get Back To Real Hip-Hop?

Back in the glory days of rap, before we had the internet (where you can find anything from an encyclopedia to a cowboy dating site), the songs were not only great, but their lyrics were right to the point in 99% of the cases. It took a true lyrical genius, such as Tupac Shakur, Nas and Dr. Dre for example, to write up a song that will hit the bullseye and still be fun to listen to. Nowadays, however, rap is steadily deteriorating. While there are still names like Eminem, Lil Wayne, and Kendrick Lamar out there to give us hope and a quality norm we can always return to, modern-day rappers have introduced us to something called “mumble rap.” With that being said, here’s what mumble rap is and why it needs to be stopped and eradicated.

The Short Background
Mumble rap, as you can imagine, isn’t exactly an age-old term. It was actually first coined in 2016 by Wiz Khalifa, who is one of the better rappers out there and whose lyrics are actually more than good especially when compared to mumble rappers. As the expected quality became lower and lower, so did the appearance of more and more mumble rappers. Kodak Wack, Lil Azz Vert, Lil Yachty, Young Thug, Chief Keef and much more, unfortunately, became the mainstream while more lyrical names like Nas and Eminem slowly began fading into the background (even though Marshal Matters, a.k.a. Eminem is still coming in hot to this day). Now, in order to explain mumble rap in the most detail, one would have to say that this is a rap subgenre that lacks lyricism, comprehensibility, and aesthetics. To put it bluntly, imagine a rap song that actually has a half-decent beat and melody but is completely ruined by gibberish which maybe even isn’t in English and that nobody ever really understands.

It’s Time to Stop!
Since we’ve covered the basics of mumble rap, let’s talk a bit about why this 2016 trend is bad and why it needs to die as soon as possible. As we’ve mentioned before, rap was different back in the day. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, it wasn’t only that you could actually understand what the artist was rapping about without having a lyrics page open in your browser, but there was usually a deeper message about an issue in society or an event in someone’s life that left a mark on them. In any case, there was a lot of deep stuff going on. With mumble rap, all of that is gone. Not only is it vague and doesn’t really assess anything real, but it’s total garbage that you cannot understand and that you cannot relate to. Rarely anyone remembers any song from a mumble rapper that was created in 2016, but you can bet everyone knows at least half of the lyrics of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” and Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” which were released back in 1995 and 2002, respectively. If we were being completely honest, it makes no sense to accept that a genre should be lower quality than it was for so many years, especially since a lot of those old school-type rappers are still out there, doing awesome work.